What do Andy Murray and Madonna have in common? As trivia questions go, that is a doozie... until you hear the 20-year-old Scot talking about his new-found enthusiasm for Bikram yoga. A desire to sit in swelteringly hot rooms performing eye-watering contortions is apparently something he and the Material Girl share.

Murray is hoping that the time he spent in December doing just that will have provided him with the ideal preparation for playing in what is likely to be a similarly sweaty Australian Open. He was introduced to Bikram yoga by his new fitness trainers Jez Green and Matt Little and is an enthusiastic convert to the art, so much so that he could be seen yesterday giving an impromptu demonstration of its techniques in the middle of Tennis Australia's reception area in the bowels of Melbourne Park. The sight of a shirtless Scot holding his leg straight out in front of him at a 90-degree angle and pushing it upwards by increments is not easily forgotten.

"When you're doing a lot of training, it's a great way of kind of getting used to the heat and also improving your flexibility," explained Murray. "I've done five or six classes now and it's been really good fun. It's different to normal yoga because it's done at 42 degrees. Regular yoga just looks like normal stretching to me. It's not as much fun, whereas this, until you do it, you can't believe how difficult it is. I mean I did some tough fitness work in the off-season and that's one of the hardest things to do. In a room with no windows, and with 20 other people in there, and just trying to hold postures and stay balanced and concentrated the whole time, it's really tough."

Murray - who clearly has the masochistic streak required of all truly dedicated sportspeople - admits he is still some way off getting himself into the sort of positions that Bikram's inventor, San Diego-based yogiraj Bikram Choudary, demonstrates on his somewhat arresting website.

"I can't really do any of the good stuff yet but I think if I keep doing it then, in about six months, there'll be a huge improvement in flexibility and also strength," said Murray. "It's all about progression. It's the perfect way to actually tell if you're improving, because you can either do the exercise or you can't."

Whether it's the yoga, or all the other, more conventional work Murray has done with Green and Little, the Scot seems full of justified confidence over his ability to withstand whatever the Australian Open throws at him. The first grand slam of the season - and Murray's first since replacing Brad Gilbert with Green, Little and a selection of other advisers - gets under way on Monday.

Before that he will spend the next few days taking part in the Kooyong Classic exhibition event, where he is guaranteed three matches, the first of which was due to take place against Marat Safin in the early hours of this morning, UK time. With the temperatures forecast to rise into the 40s tomorrow and Friday, all that time spent in overheated rooms during the off-season should stand him in good stead, as should the four weeks he spent training intensively at Nick Bollettieri's Academy in Florida during December. "Hopefully I'll be used to it," he said.

Murray could scarcely have hoped for a better foundation for the season, and last week's victory at the Qatar Open in Doha proved the value of all that hard work. Madonna - and Murray - might just be on to something.